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I can’t believe it’s been a month since our big move across the country to Nashville! In some ways it seems like its been longer than that, but it also seems like the time has flown by. We are absolutely loving Music City so far and I can’t wait to continue exploring the area! The main reason Schyler and I decided to move from Portland to Nashville was so that we could start saving for a home. The cost of living in general and the cost of homes is much less expensive here so we will be able to buy a home much sooner then we would have back in the PNW. I would love to start a family within the next few years and I can’t wait to start the next chapter of our life!

Credit is so important when buying a home and for the past 5-6 years I’ve worked hard on building and maintaining good credit for these big life moments! I definitely had to learn along the way so I wanted to share some of the ways I’ve built good credit over the years.

I wanted to share my personal experience and tips for building credit but I am definitely not an expert! Everyone’s experience with credit is different and what has worked for me may not work for you. There are great resources out there for anyone looking to learn more about building or repairing credit like CreditRepair.com. CreditRepair is the most recognized name in credit (with over 500,000 clients served) and for good reason! They are a team of credit professionals who educate and empower individuals to achieve the credit scores they deserve. Their technology provides members with a personal online dashboard, a credit score tracker and analysis, creditor and bureau interactions, text and email alerts, mobile apps and credit monitoring.

Student Loans

I’ve been paying off student loans for the past 3 years, even making payments on the interest before I was out of college! This laid the foundation for my initial credit score and I’ve been maintaining/improving my score ever since by keeping up with my monthly payments.

Getting Our First Apartment

I’ve lived in apartments since I was 18, but I always had to have my mom co-sign because you need credit to get an apartment. When Schyler and I got our first apartment in Portland, we both got our first credit cards to prove that we had good credit. My first credit card was a student credit card so I had a few perks like a lower interest rate and it’s the only one I’ve ever used. In the future, I would love to get a credit card with travel perks! There can be a lot of requirements for cards like those and it’s important to way the pros and cons of different ones so that’s something I’m still thinking about.

Buying My First Car

When I bought my first car in 2017, I was able to get a car loan with a very low interest rate of 3.4% because I had good credit. This was a HUGE benefit for me because it means that I won’t have a lot of interest to pay on top of the amount of the car itself when I finally pay off the car completely. I’ve been making payments to that loan every month ever since and I make sure that I don’t miss a payment to keep that credit score up.

Buying Our First Dog

We knew that we really wanted a hypo-allergenic dog because of Schyler’s allergies. There really aren’t that many options believe it or not and there were even less after narrowing down our preferences on breed, size, etc. I completely lucked out because it turned out that my dream dog, labradoodles, were on the list! Labradoodles are a very expensive, dog breed indeed but we had some money saved and decided it was the right time for a dog. One of the ways you can build credit is by making big payments on your credit card. By making big purchases like a dog or a couch on your credit card and then immediately paying it off with your savings, you can boost your credit score but also ensure that you don’t rack up credit card debt.

Our next big goal is to buy a home and there are several things we need to do to start the process. The first thing we need to do is explore the area and decide which neighborhoods around Nashville are the best fit for us. We plan on meeting with a realtor once we have that narrowed down so we can discuss how much we are looking at as far as a down payment on a home. This is where credit comes in because we can get approved for a better loan with good credit! There may be some loan options out there that will benefit us as well like loans for new homeowners. Once we know how much we need for a down payment on a home we can start planning how long it will take us to save that money but for now we are setting aside as much as we can in savings!

Your credit score is not written in stone and you are more than a credit score, but your credit won’t fix itself! Better credit can save you thousands of dollars in high interest rates! Call CreditRepair today for a free consultation and kick start your credit repair efforts.

XOXO